Scratch is a graphical programming language that was developed by the MIT media lab as an instructional tool. First things first, Scratch is completely free of charge! Scratch allows someone with little or no prior knowledge about computer programming to start making their own computer programs without investing much time into learning an obscure text structure and syntax. To use Scratch you must first register at the Scratch website and then download the program. Once you have the program installed, you can either try to play with some of the buttons and program a simple program or you can visit the Scratch support page to watch video tutorials on how to get started. There are also many videos on YouTube that can provide you with step-by-step instruction on creating your first program with the help of a screen cast.
Here is an example of one of the many YouTube tutorials that are available for guidance:
Once you create your first program, you have the opportunity to share your work with the world and showcase it on the Scratch website. When your work is uploaded, people have an opportunity to interact with your program or download it to modify and/or improve upon it! With that being said, you also can download somebody else's work and modify and/or improve upon it in any way you see fit. In the classroom, you could essentially have one student start a program and another finish it!
The possible uses for a programming language like Scratch are endless because you can design a program to integrate into any subject area! There are a few obvious ones at first when you think about programming. First of all, you can think of the mathematical concepts that exist when programming, such as logic. Logical math is heavily integrated into the core of Scratch and it is evident in the language that is used to control the different functions. Scratch's usefulness doesn't stop there, as the programs you can create can span from games, to instructional tools, to stories!
Let's think about the application of a tool like Scratch as an integration into the English Language Arts classroom, after all, that is our focus in this class! I found it interesting to think about how Scratch could be used to enhance or integrate with the ELA curriculum that I teach in fourth grade. The first thing I thought of was our unit on Personal Narratives/Memoirs. Essentially, Scratch could be used to program one's story into a character! A character could "act out" the part of a character from the personal narrative. To bring the thinking to another level, someone could make a Scratch program to tell the personal narrative from an alternate point of view. Perhaps the person programming the story into the character wrote the story from their point of view but wanted the Scratch character to tell the story from somebody else's point of view.
Here is an example of a quick scratch program I made to demonstrate this story telling. Click the pictures to go to the Scratch project, click the green flag to start the program and you can use the arrow keys to control the dog.
Your Name: Marc Eckert
Scratch is a graphical programming language that was developed by the MIT media lab as an instructional tool. First things first, Scratch is completely free of charge! Scratch allows someone with little or no prior knowledge about computer programming to start making their own computer programs without investing much time into learning an obscure text structure and syntax. To use Scratch you must first register at the Scratch website and then download the program. Once you have the program installed, you can either try to play with some of the buttons and program a simple program or you can visit the Scratch support page to watch video tutorials on how to get started. There are also many videos on YouTube that can provide you with step-by-step instruction on creating your first program with the help of a screen cast.
Here is an example of one of the many YouTube tutorials that are available for guidance:
Once you create your first program, you have the opportunity to share your work with the world and showcase it on the Scratch website. When your work is uploaded, people have an opportunity to interact with your program or download it to modify and/or improve upon it! With that being said, you also can download somebody else's work and modify and/or improve upon it in any way you see fit. In the classroom, you could essentially have one student start a program and another finish it!
The possible uses for a programming language like Scratch are endless because you can design a program to integrate into any subject area! There are a few obvious ones at first when you think about programming. First of all, you can think of the mathematical concepts that exist when programming, such as logic. Logical math is heavily integrated into the core of Scratch and it is evident in the language that is used to control the different functions. Scratch's usefulness doesn't stop there, as the programs you can create can span from games, to instructional tools, to stories!
Let's think about the application of a tool like Scratch as an integration into the English Language Arts classroom, after all, that is our focus in this class! I found it interesting to think about how Scratch could be used to enhance or integrate with the ELA curriculum that I teach in fourth grade. The first thing I thought of was our unit on Personal Narratives/Memoirs. Essentially, Scratch could be used to program one's story into a character! A character could "act out" the part of a character from the personal narrative. To bring the thinking to another level, someone could make a Scratch program to tell the personal narrative from an alternate point of view. Perhaps the person programming the story into the character wrote the story from their point of view but wanted the Scratch character to tell the story from somebody else's point of view.
Here is an example of a quick scratch program I made to demonstrate this story telling. Click the pictures to go to the Scratch project, click the green flag to start the program and you can use the arrow keys to control the dog.